We want to congratulate Sean Patrick Maloney on his convincing victory over Tea Party incumbent Nan Hayworth in one of the most competitive Democratic pick ups of 2012. With his victory, Maloney will become the first gay member of Congress from New York.

Congrats to Steven Horsford for winning Nevada’s 4th Congressional district. With his victory, Horsford will become the first black member of Congress from Nevada. According to the FEC, $6 million in outside money poured into the race, and $3.6 million of that opposed Horsford. Crossroads GPS, the NRCC, and the Center for Individual Freedom all poured hundreds of thousands onto TV, yet Horsford won by a commanding eight points.

We also want to congratulate Jason Kander for his impressive victory in Missouri’s Secretary of State race. In a state that Mitt Romney carried by 10 points over President Barack Obama, Kander managed to earn 75,000 more votes than the President. An almost unbelievable feat indeed.

In Wisconsin’s 1st District, Rob Zerban held VP nominee Paul Ryan to his slimmest margin yet and ran a great underdog campaign. Ryan beat Zerban by 11.5 points, well down from his average victory margin of 30 points.

Finally, we want to congratulate Ami Bera, whose race outcome is still unknown. As of this writing, Bera leads career politician Dan Lungren by 184 votes. The Bera-Lungren matchup has been one of the most closely watched in the nation, and outside groups have funneled $8.65 million into the race. If Bera is indeed elected, he would become the third Indian-American to ever serve in Congress and certainly one of the most passionate progressives we have ever worked with. Go Ami!↵<p>↵⇥We think these new progressive leaders will do brilliant things and we could not be more proud to have worked with them in 2012.